Today is Monday, and we will baptize Antoine Saturday. Antoine is 19 and moved away from home at 16 and never went back. He's spent some time homeless, but currently owns a house. He speaks slowly and often carries his head down, but he is brilliant. Last night we asked him why he wants to join the church. He replied quite boldly that it makes sense to him. That whenever he is learning about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, all these verses from the Bible pop into his mind, proving it's truth to him. He remembers everything and applies it. He'll be baptized by Elder Davis. I'm so stoked. Saturday the 25th which is exactly 1 day after 1/4 of my mission.Apostles are for real. They aren't just gimmicky church people. Elder Bednar permeated brilliance. President Eyring was my favorite apostle, but now it's pretty tied up. We learned that Elder Bednar doesn't have favorite scriptures, but rather favorite scripture themes. The one he shared was the idea in 3rd Nephi, 11 when Christ talks to everybody one by one. He doesn't just say, "Hey Everyone!" but talks to each person individually.
President Holzapfel gave us all a copy of the Book of Mormon and asked us to highlight everything in it that talks about Christ's Gospel, or doctrine. I named it Mijn Paars Book which means My Purple Book. We have to finish the whole thing by Thanksgiving, which will be hard. It's not like I have spare reading time... So that'll be a fun and exciting challenge. I'm about 1/5 of the way done, so I'm making progress.
